Congress MLA Arif Masood booked for 'fraud', 'forgery' in Bhopal

Bhopal, Aug 20 (IANS) Congress MLA Arif Masood was booked on Wednesday on the charges of fraud and forgery in Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal.

Bhopal Police Commissioner Harinarayanchari Mishra told IANS that the case has been registered, complying with the direction from the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

"Bhopal police have registered an FIR against Arif Masood. Action has been taken on the Madhya Pradesh High Court's direction. Massod has been booked, and further investigation is underway," Mishra added.

Notably, a division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court had ordered the Bhopal Police Commissioner to register an FIR against Masood in connection with the alleged use of forged solvency papers for the recognition of Indira Priyadarshini College, which is run by a society in which the Congress MLA is the secretary.

The court had directed that an FIR should also be lodged against officials of the Higher Education Department, who remained "complicit" in the matter for 20 long years and allowed the college to be functional.

The bench comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Pradeep Mittal had also ordered the constitution of an SIT led by ADGP (telecom) Sanjiv Shami to oversee the probe in the case and complete the investigation within three months.

Masood had moved the High Court challenging the decision of Barkatullah University, Bhopal, to derecognise his college, but ended up with an FIR against him.

The court stayed derecognition of the college for now in the interest of more than 1,000 students of the college, but clarified that there would be no new admissions in the college from the next academic session.

Notably, the issue was first raised by his political opponent and BJP leader Dhruvnarayan Singh, who is the son of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Govind Narayan Singh.

The BJP had fielded Dhruvnarayan Singh against Masood from the Bhopal Centre Assembly seat in the 2023 polls. The Congress leader had retained the seat.

--IANS

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